So we went to a tapas restaurant with our friends Ross and Liz. It was supposedly a very hip restaurant, so I was nervous about how to dress, but it wasn’t super crowded. The food was delicious and we were all super full. Also, the bill wasn’t nearly as much as the bill at Sullivan’s Steakhouse usually is. The deal with tapas is that it’s small plates of food — kind of appetizer sized entrees. Each of us ordered a salad and a tapas entree. With that as well as a real appetizer (shittaake mushroom fries with mango ketchup), dessert, bread and booze, we all walked away very, very full. My dessert was yummy but even too rich for me — it was a Grand Marnier-chocolate truffle tart. Mmm!
Today: Saw Sideways and In Good Company. Sideways was a better film, but In Good Company was also very good. Mmm, Marg Helgenberger (as always, I am strong enough in my heterosexuality to be able to pull that off). And Topher Grace really is a good actor. We read a profile of him in Newsweek a few weeks ago and he came off well. I really see him as a Jimmy Stewart/Tom Hanks of the future. And Scarlett Johannsen is just great — if you kinda squint, she looks like Princess Grace. Well, Princess Grace when she was a) alive and b) acting.
Later, we went for barbeque for dinner. Also yummmmmmmmmmm. Now Gene is watching Cops (he’s game off this week!) and we’re hanging out with the beagles. I really, really like my life.
In MIL house related news, she’s basically accepted the offer and should be closing by the end of February. Wow. Not sure yet when she’s making the move to Ohio but it should be by the time the baby’s born.
And speaking of Plan B…yes, the house is selling, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to go off and get pg right now. We need to a) pay off credit cards (should be by the end of summer) b) buy a car for Gene (a possible way to spend the house money) c) institute “austerity savings”, as labelled by Gene. Austerity savings means I give up Patty and Angela, and in theory we may give up the yard guy. Gene also says it includes eating out less and cancelling some of the movie channels on the satellite dish (I’d prefer to make that the last piece of the puzzle — something tells me I’m going to want 500 channels to choose from when I’m up with a colicky baby at 3:30 in the morning).
But I digress. The plan is to start…errr…trying in August 2007. It’s a year later than I wanted, but as Gene said at dinner the other night, I’ve negotiated him away from “NEVER”, so what’s another year? Also, on the topic of names (since I can’t plan anything ‘real’, I’d might as well obsess over fun things), we like Graham. I’m also keen on Jackson, Jacob, William (hey — 4 generations of my family can’t be wrong!) and as always, Margaret (Meg) for a girl.